Austria: Medical conference on terminally-ill

Ethics knows neither social state nor age limit: Conference on medical and research ethics

A symposium on ethics was recently held in Vienna, organized by the Austrian Order of Doctors and the European Forum “Alpbach,” which addressed various themes. During the encounter, it was seen that the most important quality of a doctor is knowing how to listen to the person, that ethics knows neither social state nor age limit, that barriers should be taken down and bridges built, that the imaginary walls between public and private, body and mind, are not a reality. “The Mexican flu is not only lethal in Mexico; what we eat does not only determine our own health, but also the health of the environment and climate changes have an influence on many people's health, especially the poor,” an American sociologist said.

When it came time for the doctors to speak, Richard Greil of Salzburg said that one of the major moral conflicts in medicine is when the doctor has to decide how to treat a terminally ill patient. He said that, in his experience among the seriously ill, the desire to continue living is much stronger than the desire to die and that those who wish to avoid treatments to prolong their lives at the cost of great suffering, are normally healthy persons.